The pasuk in Shemos says that Hashem heard our voices when we were crying in Egypt (not our actual prayers). This seems odd: If Hashem is able to hear our prayers which have meaning, why would he listen to our “voices” and not our tefilos?

The answer is actually quite simple! While most human communication is from speech, there is another form called “body language”. What does that mean? We “talk” without speaking, like it says in a famous song “people talking without speaking”. Not only that, body language can be stronger then talking. For example: If your son came up to you saying “Abba, Mommy I am sad, you will sit down and talk to him make him feel good. However, if he came crying out, tears all over his face, you will immediately go and hug him, and calm him down since that is a greater expression of emotion than talking. Same with Hashem who our voices, which might be saying something real and logical about our suffering, but it’s our cries, our deepest emotions that Hashem really wants and loves and listens for. I know for me when hear a song, the way it is sung has a deep impression on me, sometimes more than the actual words. Lets keep this in mind during Elul and through the Yomim Noraim as we daven and do teshuva. Perhaps this idea is even related to the shofar we blow daily and on Rosh Hashanah. May we all be Zocheh to be able to have that deepest emotion with Hashem and may we be answered.

Shabbat Shalom